While graffiti can be a form of art, graffiti is often unwanted, and includes tagging and other methods of marking an object with acid, markers, paints, stickers, and other items. As such, cities are in a constant battle with graffiti. In fact, many cities have very large budgets dedicated solely to removing graffiti. Objects around cities, public parking lots, private parking lots, and roadways are prime targets for graffiti. Graffiti is found on city walls, dumpsters, garbage cans, municipal vehicles including garbage trucks, parked train cars, busses, municipal transportation vehicles, weather shelters, traffic cabinets, utility cabinets, light poles, light control cabinets, connection boxes, electrical boxes, parking meters, bus shelters, cable access boxes, railroad electrical and control boxes, other objects that protect city infrastructure, and other city-owned objects.
In response to graffiti on objects, a city, municipality, or private owner may choose to do nothing, allowing the object to stay defaced, or they may choose to remove the graffiti. Currently, in order to remove graffiti, the owner of the object must send out a crew to clean and remove or paint over the graffiti. This process usually involves using harsh chemicals or natural based cleaners, usually resulting in noticeable damage to the object or possible fading of the original color of the object or an unsuccessful full graffiti removal, thereby causing color match issues and further visual eyesores. If there are electronics inside the object, use of a harsh chemical may cause damage to the electronic components or may be a fire hazard to the electronic components. Moreover, these chemicals are often flammable and are hazardous to humans. Overall, this process often requires the crew to spend several hours to complete.
As can be imagined, once the graffiti is removed from the object, it is still exposed to possible vandalism in the form of additional graffiti.
An alternative response to the graffiti problem is to beautify an object before graffiti can be applied or be reapplied. This beautification can be in the form of artwork such as a painted mural applied to the object. Additionally, objects may be beautified by placing advertisements thereon or blending the objects into nature by way of a placing a bush or a tree graphic on the object. Because the object is beautified in advance, it reduces, but does not eliminate, the likelihood that the object will have graffiti applied.
In addition to combatting unsightly graffiti, cities are generally looking for ways to beautify their city in order to increase the living standard for residents and to attract more people to their city. As a result, cities are paying attention to their surroundings and embracing the arts and city beautification movement. Many cities are involving local artists and businesses to come up with ideas to make their city a better place to live.
In every city, utility boxes are necessary for purposes of safely storing electrical wiring and electronic devices necessary to power and run different parts of the city or neighborhood. In some cases, the utility boxes store other wiring, including, cable wiring and telephone wiring.
The boxes are small (around 20″) all the way up to large fixtures (up to 8′ tall) and often placed out in the open. Because the city or utility companies do not want the contents of the utility boxes tampered with, the utility boxes are typically made of sheets of metal and include a lock. The result is typically an unsightly box in the middle of an otherwise attractive street.
Starting in the 1960s, many communities contemplated different methods for making the boxes and other municipal objects more attractive.
One such method includes establishing a beautification program and hiring an artist to paint the objects. The object will typically look good for a few years, but after some time, the paint starts to flake or discolor. The paint also offers no or very little resistance or clean ability if someone defaces the object. Painting also can harm items, such as traffic cabinets, by sealing access doors shut, sealing locks, or interfering with ventilation systems that are built into the cabinets.
Another method for making objects more attractive includes placing graphical products (such as graphical decals or graphical wraps) on the object. The graphical product is typically made of vinyl and has artwork on it. It is applied to the object, providing the object with a more pleasant artistic appearance.
The typical graphical products that are placed on the object are not intended to protect the object against graffiti and the graphical products are not made specifically for this use. Rather, the commercially available signs and films are typically made to be applied to a sign or an automobile for advertising, design, styling, or color change purposes and are incapable of protecting against graffiti.
As a result, the graphical products fail for a variety of reasons including, improper installation of the film, poor printing techniques, cheap or incorrect materials being used, and discoloration or damage of the graphical product when graffiti is removed. Discoloration may arise because the cleaner damaged the film, or the item used to deface the object (paint, marker, adhesive stickers, acid etching et cetera) never fully came off after cleaning.
As can be imagined, after time, various impairments would cause the graphical products to peel off of the utility box. The impairments include, but are not limited to, inclement weather, environmental variables such as dust, vandalism, impurities, heat, ultra violet radiation, moss, mold, corrosion, and general wear.
Moreover, the graphical product covered utility boxes may still be a target for graffiti artists. If the graphical product becomes covered by graffiti, then the result would be even more unsightly than the utility box on its own.
The current method for making a graphical product, such as a graphical wrap or film, includes the steps of selecting a printable flexible material typically made out of vinyl and having a pressure sensitive adhesive thereon. Depending on the requirements of the graphical product, the printable flexible material can be high or a low quality. The material can be more flexible and also have different adhesive properties such as removable, permanent, or temporary and also can be more aggressive and less aggressive from an adhesion standpoint. The next step is to design the image or use local photography and scan the artist's work, create the image on a computer, wherein the image on the computer is suitable for a wide grand format printer. Next the image from the computer is transferred onto the material by way of a wide-format printer, silk screen, or other methods of transferring the design onto the vinyl material. The inks may be high quality inks or low quality. The next step is to optionally apply a pressure sensitive clear laminate on the vinyl material. This is done by a lamination machine, a cold laminator, or a heat assist laminator that is automatic or hand powered, that applies the pressure sensitive laminate onto the vinyl material. Alternatively, a liquid is applied to the vinyl material, which creates a protective laminate upon drying. Also alternatively, a liquid laminate that is applied automatically or hand applied by a pressurized device (such as a spray can). This method is less effective than the pressure sensitive laminate.
The pressure sensitive laminate (or overlaminate) typically provides a finish (matte, semi-gloss, satin, or gloss) overlaminate film and the liquid laminates protect the graphics from abrasion, some chemicals, and UV exposure. It also typically protects the vinyl material and image thereon from ultraviolet rays, water, and some chemicals. The pressure sensitive laminate can be selected from a range of high to low quality, which may have a short outdoor durability of three to five years in a normal use situation, but is reduced when used in these certain applications to about one to two years depending on the climate zone and may have limited or no warranty on horizontal surfaces. The resulting processed graphical product (decal or film) is applied or installed onto the surface of an object. The surface of the object can be flat, have curves, or have angles.
In many cases, the application or installation of the processed graphical product isn't performed properly. In this case, the object isn't adequately protected and the beautification objective isn't reached and the processed graphical product may fail over time.
While there are some overlaminates and clear laminates that offer better protection and may be used as anti-graffiti, these and the typical processed graphical products are not recommended to place over the complex curves (90 degree angles, rivets, bends, et cetera) of city objects because they are thicker (2.5 mm-10 mm) or not conforming or use complex curves/simple curves and will have visual failures. These processed graphical films are traditionally used for a flat surface such as a sign. There are anti graffiti films available to place over the processed graphical products, but most have a limited life of one to three years outdoors, the film can be less effective after multiple cleanings from graffiti cleaners, still have a staining after certain types of graffiti or may be damaged when typical chemical based cleaners are used on its surface, have poor UV protection, are damaged by heat (130+/−F degrees), or are not made for this type of use and are unable to withstand environments, weather, and salt.
Thus, there is a need to provide a protective multilayer film that can withstand the above-mentioned impairments. In particular, it is desirable that the multilayer film is capable of withstanding these impairments for at least five years while protecting objects such as traffic and utility cabinets.